Chapter 25 - A ticket (Translated by Xing and edited by Souhi)

Tang Xue asked Xia Menghuan with a sweet smile, "Do you know what Li Yubing's greatest weakness is?"

With an equally sweet smile, Xia Menghuan replied, "I know what all men's greatness weakness is."

Tang Xue: = =

Xia Menghuan's appearance always made Tang Xue overlook the fact that she had a huge rogue disguised by her side.

Tang Xue: "I am very curious to know just what exactly have you experienced in the past."

Xia Menghuan shook her hands. "It's a looong story."

However, the "weakness" that Tang Xue said was not the "weakness" that Xia Menghuan had in mind.

A few days later, Tang Xue asked Li Yubing to meet her in a secluded corner of school. This place was originally an experimental field belonging to the old agricultural science building. It was later abandoned and converted into a small garden planted with numerous maple and peach trees. Autumn had painted the maple leaves the colours of flame. The ground was dotted with patches of vibrant green weeds and yellow daisies. Looking around, the view was actually quite pretty.

It was a bright and sunny day. Standing in this scenery, anyone's skin would look especially good. Li Yubing saw Tang Xue's face and felt that this brat was not as dark as before.

Tang Xue's hands were clasped behind her back. She gave Li Yubing a friendly smile. "Little Bingbing~~~" Her tone was especially cheery.

Li Yubing's scalp tingled. He rapped his knuckles on her head. "Get to the point."

Tang Xue's head was knocked askew but she did not get angry. She maintained that bright smile on her face and said, "It's your birthday today."

"Mm." Li Yubing did not expect Tang Xue to remember his birthday.

"Here." She stretched out her arms. "Your birthday present."

Li Yubing lowered his gaze and saw that in her hands was a box. It was a light purple square box that was the size of her palm. He lightly raised his brows and remembered that many years ago, he had also once given her a birthday present.

It was a really, really disgusting present.

Li Yubing did not move. One side of his lips lightly quirked. "You're that kind?"

"Absolutely. You're the one paying my wages after all." Tang Xue winked at him. "Open it and see what's inside?"

Thus, Li Yubing took the box and opened the lid.

Inside the box was a pink silkworm.

The silkworm was fat and meaty. Perhaps because of hunger, it did not stop wriggling. The silkworm climbed along the side of the box and looked as if it was about to escape  any moment.

Li Yubing felt like vomiting. However, his face did not reveal any of his inner thoughts. Keeping a stoic face, he closed the lid and with a casual flick of his hands……

The box landed neatly in the rubbish bin by the side of the path. It rattled the empty bin with a dull thud.

This reaction was vastly different from what Tang Xue had antic.i.p.ated. She remembered that caterpillars were Li Yubing's greatest fear. She had been hoping to subdue him with caterpillars……

"You…" She pointed at the rubbish bin. "Did you manage to see clearly what was inside?"

Li Yubing crossed his arms and looked at her. A wry smile tugged his lips. "Have you heard of caterpillar phobia clinics before?"

"…… The heck is that?"

"They specialize in treating people with caterpillar phobias. I've completely recovered."

"Why would people do something so lame." Tang Xue was highly disappointed. With a crestfallen face, she walked over and started rummaging through the rubbish bin.

Li Yubing asked, "What are you doing?"

"The silkworm was borrowed from the lab," she replied as she dug through the bin.

"You mean stolen, don't you?"

Tang Xue gave him a look of disdain. "Nonsense. We're all intellectuals here. How can it be stolen?"

The bin was quite empty and Tang Xue quickly retrieved the silkworm. She gently brushed away the dust on the box.

Then, silkworm carefully in hand, she left.

Still at the same spot, Li Yubing watched her left. When she was some distance away, he suddenly sighed in relief. His body instantly relaxed like the release of a tightly compressed spring.

His limbs felt like jelly. Li Yubing held onto the maple tree by the path and raised a hand to wipe his forehead, which he discovered was covered in sweat.

"I knew you were going to pull something like this," Li Yubing muttered. As he spoke, he looked at Tang Xue's back view and gave a scornful smile. "That dummy."

After returning to dorm, Tang Xue pa.s.sed the silkworm back to her roommates Zhao Qin and Ye Liuying. The silkworm was indeed stolen, not by her but by her two helpful roommates majoring in agriculture engineering. It was a special breed cultivated in the agricultural science lab that could reportedly spin multi-coloured silk. This translation is a labour of love that should not be found/reposted outside of teafragrance[dot]wordpress[dot]com.

Holding the silkworm, Ye Liuying looked at Zhao Qin. The two of them exchanged meaningful glances behind Tang Xue's back. When Tang Xue turned, she happened to catch them raising their brows at each other like something was up.

"What's up with you two?" she asked.

"Tang Xue." Ye Liuying seemed a little embarra.s.sed. She hesitated for a moment before asking, "Are you going to the ice hockey friendly match held at the ice stadium next week?"

The friendly match that Ye Liuying mentioned was between the ice hockey teams from RCU and a university from Germany. Recently, people from several German universities had arrived to interview and exchange information with RCU. RCU students were rather indifferent to the academic exchange going on. Instead, they were more interested in the ice hockey team that had also flown over.

Ever since the RCU ice hockey team took home the gold medal, the entire school had been extremely proud of them. Seeing how they had reached the top among the local universities, this opportunity to exchange pointers with friends from Europe filled everyone with antic.i.p.ation.

At the same time, this friendly match was extensively covered by the school media, to the point that it was something that everyone knew.

A portion of the tickets were released to RCU students for free. However, demand outweighed supply[1] and it was now extremely difficult to obtain a ticket.

Tang Xue knew about this match. However, she did not have tickets either.

"I'm not going," she replied.

"Oh." Ye Liuying seemed somewhat disappointed and did not say anything else.

Tang Xue asked, "Are you two going?"

Ye Liuying shook her head. "We want to but we could not get tickets. Right now, the tickets are being sold online but it's really expensive. We can't afford it."

Seeing an opening, Zhao Qin said, "Tang Xue, we heard that you're pretty close to Li Yubing from the ice hockey team. Can you help to ask him if they still have any tickets left?"

Tang Xue did not want to ask a favour from Li Yubing. However, on account of them helping her to steal a silkworm and the fact that they were roommates who should look after each other, Tang Xue decided to do what she could to help.

Therefore, she readily nodded. "Sure, I'll ask him."

During dinner that night, she spent a grand sum of 15 yuan to treat Li Yubing to a small pot of sweet corn pork rib soup.

Li Yubing immediately raised his guard. "What are you up to?"

"Little Bingbing~~~" There she went again.

Li Yubing mentally braced himself for Tang Xue to fish out yet another caterpillar. In the end, she only asked, "Do you still have any tickets to the ice hockey match?"

Oh, so that was what this was about.

Li Yubing's tense body relaxed. He lightly raised his chin and sn.o.bbishly glanced at her out of the corner of his eye. "You're looking for tickets?"

"Do you have any or not?"

He dug around his bag and fished out a stack of tickets. He asked, "Are you referring to this?" Seeing Tang Xue stretching for the tickets, he quickly raised them out of reach.

Tang Xue said, "Speak, what are your terms?"

Li Yubing leaned back. He smiled. "Get on my good side."

Tang Xue was not a rigid person incapable of adapting to circ.u.mstances. She got up and walked to his back, raised her hands and started kneading his shoulders.

The fingers of a girl were soft. Even though the pressure used was light and it was through a s.h.i.+rt, Li Yubing could distinctively feel the nimble movements of her fingertips. Focused on his body, this ma.s.sage made him felt a little disorientated.

Unfortunately, the person giving this ma.s.sage chose to speak at this moment. In a nauseatingly sweet tone, she asked, "Big brother Bing~ Is this comfortable~~~"

Li Yubing got gooseb.u.mps. He slapped her hands away. "Don't touch me."

Tang Xue stretched an open palm towards him. He tossed the stack of tickets into her hand.

She counted an unexpected total of six tickets.

Out of the six tickets, she kept three for her roommates and gave one each to both Liao Zhenyu and Yu Yan. When she met Yu Yan at the ice stadium west wing entrance to pa.s.s him the tickets, as luck would have it, she coincidentally b.u.mped into Li Yubing. This is translation is meant to be published only on teafragrance[dot]wordpress[dot]com.

With his own eyes, Li Yubing witnessed how Tang Xue personally handed Yu Yan a ticket.

Excellent. One moment she was taking something from him and the next she was rus.h.i.+ng to offer it to that cinnamon roll over there.

Standing only a short distance away, Li Yubing crossed his arms and gave a scathing smile.

Yu Yan took the tickets and smiled. "It's really difficult to get this ticket now. How can I possibly thank you?"

Tang Xue laughed mischievously. "Mmmm, call me 'older sister'."

Tang Xue's teasing caught Yu Yan off guard. His face heated and he looked away. "I'll treat you to a meal."

"Sure." Tang Xue turned her bicycle and saw Li Yubing. She gravely nodded at him, clearly not planning to exchange words with him. She said goodbye to Yu Yan, got onto her bicycle and rode off.

Yu Yan stood where he was. Despite knowing that Tang Xue would not turn back, he waved at her leaving figure.

Then, he carefully kept the ticket in his bag.

When he raised his head, he heard Li Yubing called him from the distance. "You."

Yu Yan obediently went over.

Li Yubing was taller than Yu Yan by more than 10 cm. At present, he was languidly leaning against the wall with a hand in his pocket, looking the part of an evil school bully looking down his nose at Yu Yan.

Yu Yan addressed him. "Senior."

Li Yubing gave a small nod. He said, "Don't get too close to Tang Xue."

Yu Yan looked at him, his gaze steady and unruffled. In an even tone that was neither meek nor arrogant, he asked, "Why?"

Why? How to even begin explaining this……Li Yubing could not possibly inform Yu Yan outright that Tang Xue was a terrible sc.u.mbag, couldn't he? It was also not feasible for him to admit that he was out to wreck Tang Xue's potential relations.h.i.+ps.

Li Yubing thought over this for 2 seconds and gave a random excuse. "She's mine."

Yu Yan raised his head, his innocent face confused. "But senior, I heard Tang Xue said that you were her dog."

Li Yubing: "……"

During practice that day, Li Yubing was like an enraged bull. Thinking that he was giving his all in preparation for the friendly match, his coach and teammates felt both admiration and sympathy.

After distributing the tickets, Tang Xue still had one left. She listed it online and sold it for a hefty sum.

On the day of the friendly match, Li Yubing wanted to bring her into the ice stadium. With an extremely apologetic look on her face, Tang Xue said, "I'm sorry…… I lost my ticket."

"Idiot." Li Yubing knocked her head. He brought her to the staff entrance where she ultimately entered the ice stadium.

Tang Xue did not have a staff pa.s.s. However, no one dared to stop her. After all, everyone knew who Li Yubing was. He was the star of the ice hockey team that one could not afford to offend.

In the end, Tang Xue squatted in the corridor like a beggar to watch the entire ice hockey match.

Translator's Notes:

[1] Previously in Chapter 8, we had 僧多粥少 (sēng duō zhōu shǎo), which means too many monks and too little porridge. Here, we have 狼多肉少 (láng duō ròu shǎo), which means too many wolves and too little meat. Isn't it interesting how there are so many ways of saying the same thing?

Tang Xue is incorrigible lol.